DETROIT -- There was no doubt who the majority of fans in Joe Louis Arena were rooting for on Saturday night.

After all, this was still Hockeytown. This was still the home of the 10-time Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings. This was still the franchise that spawned Mr. Hockey, Stevie Y and the Grind Line.

But if the repeated "Let's Go Pens!" chants weren't quite audible enough to let the crowd know that Pittsburgh is nearby in terms of relative geographic proximity to Detroit, the high volume of Penguins jerseys dotting the crowd certainly clinched it.

It was a startling display from the Pittsburgh faithful, and it must have been a surprising sight to the fans who have followed the Red Wings through the generations.

Not surprisingly, most of those sweaters displayed the name of a familiar hockey wunderkind: Crosby.

Steve Yzerman might have drawn the loudest ovation of the night during the ceremonial puck drop, but the presence of Sidney Crosby alongside Penguins legend Mario Lemieux could have served as one more symbolic changing of the guard.

But if the weight of being labeled the NHL's poster boy weighed on the mind of Crosby leading up to his Stanley Cup finals debut against the Red Wings, he wasn't letting on.

"Slept fine. I think we're looking forward to it getting started," Crosby said Friday. "There's been a lot of buildup over the last few days, and we're anxious to get going."

That anxiety certainly showed as the Red Wings gritted out a 4-0 victory in Game 1 to take an early 1-0 series lead.

And there was no doubt who was wearing the bull's-eye as far as the Red Wings were concerned.

Even if Crosby was saying all the right things, he couldn't have been blamed for feeling jittery in the game's opening moments. Especially once he skated into the teeth of Detroit's defensive corps.

"That's playoff hockey. I mean, I don't expect it to be easy or to skate around there freely," Crosby said. "That's hockey and I expect that. It's part of the game and I don't think that's changed."

Crosby looked uncomfortable the moment the first puck dropped. He slipped near the boards behind the Red Wings' net in the opening seconds and missed a couple early passes from teammates.

Then, just 1:55 into the second period, Crosby committed a careless slashing penalty. No goal came of it, but it was the continuation of an up-and-down evening that you wouldn't expect from last year's MVP.

Coming into this series, Crosby was tied for the league lead in playoff points with four goals and 17 assists in 14 games.

But against Detroit, he struggled to find a groove. Crosby clearly was frustrated by the Red Wings, who wouldn't allow him to carry the puck through the zone or park in front of the net, ala Tomas Holmstrom.

Early in the second period, Pittsburgh coach Michel Therrien reunited Crosby with fellow young gun Evgeni Malkin, who had his own problems with getting on track. Pittsburgh also tried out Crosby and Malkin with Marian Hossa, but it wasn't enough to break through Detroit's defense.

Crosby's final line: 25 shifts, 18:10 of ice time, three shots, one giveaway and a minus-1 rating.

"You've got to really execute, that's the main thing with games like this," Crosby said. "Tight games like this, had a few chances, but that's the difference between executing and not executing, it's the difference in a hockey game."

Therrien wasn't entirely pleased with the performance of his rising stars.

"I don't know if it was the nerves. But definitely that was the worst performance of the playoffs," he said. "We didn't compete like we were supposed to compete.

"And it's a good lesson."

It's easy to nit-pick Crosby in what might have been just the first of what could be many Stanley Cup appearances, but it's also a sign that at 20 years old, the future may be brighter than what was previously expected.

It also might be a sign that he might be a year away from being able to lift his first Stanley Cup.